Twilight Revisited
by SassyJ
Summary: Ari's emotions get in the way, and he does not kill Kate. Confused and distressed by his emotional response to his "enemy", Ari tries to deny his feelings and kill Gibbs. The outcome changes everything.
1. Chapter 1

"I'm sorry, Caitlin." He sighted on her forehead, a clean, perfect, kill shot. He pulled the trigger.

He closed his eyes. _Caitlin!_ His soul cried out in torment. A bullet pinged close to his position and he opened his eyes. He had to get out of there, he scrambled backwards. As he left his position he glanced back, catching a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Long brown hair, blowing in the breeze as she dove for cover.

In that brief glimpse he realised what he had done. He had saved her. His shot had gone wide. Confused, he ran. His thoughts churning at the implication of what he had done.


	2. Chapter 2

_He intended to kill Gibbs. With his own weapon. The sniper's rifle sat easily in his hands. His earlier failure was aberration. He would not fail again. The man in front of him would die._

_The man sat down and faced him calmly, as Ari concentrated everything he had, all his hate and fear, and distrust along the barrel. His nemesis._

_The shot rang out._

...ooo0ooo...

"Three days?" Kate stared at Gibbs as though she had never seen him before.

"You don't have to go, Kate." Gibbs said quietly.

"I know." She looked down at her hands. "I..." she faltered. "I don't really understand."

"I don't think he does either, Kate."

"If I go, perhaps I can make sense of it."

"Perhaps."

Kate looked up, Gibbs' expression gave nothing away as ever. It was her choice, and she knew she had already made it. He had been asking for her for three days. In the depths of pain and despair he had called her name, and only her name. Her nemesis.

He had held her hostage, he had laughed at her, disarmed her as easily as taking a lollipop from a small child, he had kidnapped her, he had even tried to kill her.

But she would go to him. Closure. That was what she was calling it. An end.

...ooo0ooo...

He lay on his back, staring straight up at the ceiling. There were people around, he knew that. Periodically, someone would come to check on him, as he knew they would. He said nothing.

Caitlin.

Mechanically he tugged at his wrist. Moving his arm that much hurt, but he did it anyway. He didn't know why, but something made him do it.

Caitlin. He closed his eyes. Picturing her would do no good. Saying her name out loud gave him a curious feeling of comfort. A mantra to blank his mind.

"Ari."

Now his blank mind was playing tricks on him. He screwed his eyes closed tightly, he could hear her voice, if he could hold that.

A hand touched his. "Ari." She said. He turned his face away, eyes still closed, hope was springing in his heart. Hope when all hope was gone.

A slim hand slid into his and grasped it firmly. "Ari. I'm here." Her voice was calm and very gentle. Far more than he deserved. A tear leaked from beneath his closed eyelid and trickled down across his cheek.

A hand gently brushed his cheek. "I'm here." Soft, soothing voice. He opened his eyes and stared up at her.

"Caitlin."

Kate Todd looked down at her nemesis, lying in the hospital bed. Grief, pain and fear were etched on his face as though burnt into his soul.

The handcuffs chaining him to the bed a cruel indignity.

She reached into her bag and pulled out the set of handcuff keys she used. Unlocking the things, she put them to one side and took his bruised wrist gently in her hands.

"I'm sorry they did that to you." Her fingers caressed the bruising as though her touch could make it disappear.

"Caitlin."

"I know." She said. The weight of her knowledge pressing on her soul.

Whatever he had intended, whatever the true outcome was meant to be, it was over. Ari's world had changed forever. The burden bore down on her as in that moment she wondered whether he knew.

"I was a doctor, Caitlin."

She had her answer, and a wave of tenderness swept over her. "I'm so sorry, Ari."

"It does not matter."

She could see from the look in his eyes that it did. He was trying to be brave when there was no need. She was there. By his side. And she would remain there. Whatever he said. He needed her, she needed him and that was an end to it.

He read her intention in her eyes.

"Caitlin, I will never walk away from this." He warned.

"I know that; did you really think I was so shallow?" For a second his angry Caitlin was back.

"No... I thought you were..." It seemed such an idiotic word.

"You thought I was what?"

"Fierce." He ended.

A slight smile crossed her features. "Fierce." She gave a little nod. "I like that."

"You were always fierce. A conqueror." _You walked into my heart and conquered it. As I should have known you would that first day. The day I grabbed you and pulled your body against mine. I changed the course of our destinies that day. Because you changed my heart and soul._

_I would die for you if you asked me._


	3. Chapter 3

She sat by his side for a long time. Gibbs had given her leave to stay. _To get this out of her system._ Perhaps. Gibbs was a wily fox who knew his team so well. He knew that whatever the reality, Ari Haswari was a part of Kate's life.

Ziva had pulled the trigger. In doing so, she had saved Gibbs' life. It was the right thing to do, and Kate knew it. But the cost to Ari...

Ziva could have killed him. But he was her half-brother. The shot she had made had stopped him. Under normal circumstances it would probably have been a through and through wound, severe, painful but not fatal.

A twist of fate. The bullet had torn through Ari's body, it had done damage but its final resting place had sealed his fate.

Ari could not feel his legs. He was paralysed from the waist down.

X-rays had revealed the bullet lodged against his spine. Removing it would be a very difficult and delicate operation, and it was unlikely to improve his overall condition.

Kate looked down at their entwined hands, her small slim fingers grasping his. He was clinging to her hand. A proud man who would never beg, even when his need was acute, but his soul still cried out to hers.

He was resting. Not asleep, although he needed sleep badly. She knew he was in pain, he seemed to welcome that, stoically holding out between the nurses' visits to monitor his condition. Refusing to press the bell to summon assistance.

Knowing that he was prepared to suffer, the last vestiges of Kate's reserve broke. That she, a good Catholic girl, could love a man like Ari seemed impossible. But love him she did.

Whatever he was, terrorist, spy; in whatever condition; and in all probability, Ari would never walk again, Caitlin Todd loved him.

The FBI had chained him to the bed like an animal. He could not walk, he could not stand, he could barely sit up, yet in an act of inhumanity, some agent had cuffed him to the bed frame. Kate's tender heart bled for him. Her free hand moved to gently stroke the back of his bruised wrist again.

He moved a little, and moaned. "Ari..." Kate reached over to stroke his cheek and his eyes opened, "are you in pain?"

He wanted to deny it. He was already helpless, he did not want to appear needy. He nodded.

Kate pressed the bell.


	4. Chapter 4

Kate slid into the pool and swam towards Ari. She had started to attend as many of the physiotherapy sessions with him as she could. The swimming was her favourite time, Ari enjoyed being on an almost equal footing with her, and the slight stiffness that characterised their relationship disappeared when he was swimming with her.

His situation had changed radically in the weeks since he had been shot. The FBI had abandoned the case against him, putting a critically injured man in prison was apparently not in the public interest. Ari had not heard one word from family in Israel. Ziva visited him regularly, but there was an even greater gulf between half-brother and sister than there had been before.

Kate made plans to move him in with her.

He watched her closely, as he had all the weeks she had been coming to his bedside. Warm, generous, loving Caitlin. The woman his years of training and conditioning could not kill. Whatever the rights and wrongs of his life, and he had done a great many things that his conscience said he should not be proud of, he loved her. He had tried to deny that love. He had had her in his sights. He had even pulled the trigger. It made no difference. Love had stayed his hand.

An emotional response.

His father had wanted him to be a stone cold killer. A man of no emotion. _As if emotion could be so contained._

Ari had believed he had his emotions under control. His life was attuned to violence, hatred for his father the fuel that kept him going. His activities as a mole paled into insignificance next to his need to destroy his father. Sometimes he wondered if any of the fanatics he worked with knew that they were pawns in his game. His game of vengeance against his father.

His life's work was over. His reasons for living, and everything that he had done to get there were now out of his reach. In his darkest moments he wished that Ziva's bullet had taken his life.

Then he would wake up, and Caitlin would be by his side. With Caitlin by his side he could not give up. He loved her too much to let go.

As a doctor, he knew his condition was unlikely to change a great deal; the physiotherapy might help him maintain some muscle tone for a while, but he knew it would not work forever. Nothing would restore damaged nerves. He needed a miracle.

She smiled at him and he moved closer. His useless legs mattered less in the water. For a little while he could pretend that they were still equals. His hands slid around her wrists and he pulled her closer. So sweet, so gentle and pretty, so fierce, so independent; a beautiful mass of contradictions.

They were in a very intimate position. She gently removed her wrists from his loose grasp and moved in. Wrapping her arms around his neck, tilting her face up, their lips met. Ari closed his eyes and lost himself in the beauty that was his Caitlin.

She leaned back a little. "They're going to let you out next week." She smiled at him, "are you coming home with me."

It was the way she said it. _Home._ His dark eyes searched hers, not quite believing it, as his soul soared _Yes, yes, yes..._ beating a rhythm out in his mind.

His moment of truth. "Yes."

Her face lit up, and she eased backwards a little. "Good. That's settled. Now, we came here to swim."

He groaned in fake annoyance, "my Caitlin, she is a very hard task-master."

She grinned. "You had better believe it."


End file.
